Measurements based on panel and census data

ABSTRACT

A first set of usage data for a first set of resources on a network and a second set of usage data for a second set of resources on a network are accessed. The first set of resources were accessed by a first group of client systems and the first set of usage data is determined based on information received from the first group of client systems sent as a result of beacon instructions included with the first set of resources. The second set of usage data is determined based on information received from monitoring applications installed on a second group of client systems that accessed the second set of resources. Users of the second group of client systems are a sample of a larger group of users that use resources on the network. Initial usage measurement data for a third set of resources on the network is determined based on the first set of usage data. The third set includes one or more common resources that are included in the first set of resources and the second set of resources. One or more adjustment factors are determined based on the second set of usage data and applied to the initial usage measurement data to generate adjusted usage measurement data. One or more reports are generated based on the adjusted usage measurement data.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.14/147,722 filed on Jan. 6, 2014 and titled “MEASUREMENTS BASED ON PANELAND CENSUS DATA”, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.12/871,385 filed on Aug. 30, 2010 and titled “MEASUREMENTS BASED ONPANEL AND CENSUS DATA”, which claims priority to U.S. ProvisionalApplication Ser. No. 61/328,909 filed on Apr. 28, 2010 and titled“MEASUREMENTS BASED ON PANEL AND CENSUS DATA”, and U.S. ProvisionalApplication Ser. No. 61/320,953, filed on Apr. 5, 2010 and titled“MEASUREMENTS BASED ON PANEL AND CENSUS DATA,” all of which areincorporated by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

Internet audience measurement may be useful for a number of reasons. Forexample, some organizations may want to be able to make claims about thesize and growth of their audiences or technologies. Similarly,understanding consumer behavior, such as how consumers interact with aparticular web site or group of web sites, may help organizations makedecisions that improve their traffic flow or the objective of theirsite. In addition, understanding Internet audience visitation and habitsmay be useful in supporting advertising planning, buying, and selling.

SUMMARY

In one aspect, a system includes one or more processing devices and oneor more storage devices storing instructions. The instructions, whenexecuted by the one or more processing devices, cause the one or moreprocessing devices to access a first set of usage data for a first setof resources on a network. The first set of resources were accessed by afirst group of client systems and the first set of usage data isdetermined based on information received from the first group of clientsystems sent as a result of beacon instructions included with the firstset of resources. The instructions also cause the one or more processingdevices to access a second set of usage data for a second set ofresources on a network. The second set of usage data is determined basedon information received from monitoring applications installed on asecond group of client systems that accessed the second set ofresources. Users of the second group of client systems are a sample of alarger group of users that use resources on the network. Further, theinstructions cause the one or more processing devices to determineinitial usage measurement data for a third set of resources on thenetwork based on the first set of usage data, wherein the third setincludes one or more common resources that are included in the first setof resources and the second set of resources; determine one or moreadjustment factors based on the second set of usage data; apply the oneor more adjustments factors to the initial usage measurement data togenerate adjusted usage measurement data; and generate one or morereports based on the adjusted usage measurement data.

Implementations may include one or more of the following features. Forexample, the information received from the first group of client systemsmay include, for each of the client systems in the first group thataccessed the common resources, one or more beacon messages that identifythe common resources and that include a beacon cookie with a uniqueidentifier for the client system. To determine the initial usagemeasurement data, the instructions may include instructions that, whenexecuted, cause the one or more processing devices to determine aninitial count of unique visitors that accessed the third set ofresources during a time period by determining a count of the receivedbeacon messages that identify the common resources and that includebeacon cookies with different unique identifiers.

The one or more adjustment factors may include a cookie-per-personadjustment factor that reflects a number of beacon cookies per personthat accessed the common resources during the time period. To determinethe cookie-per-person adjustment factor, the instructions may includeinstructions that cause the one or more processing devices to determinea ratio of a projected total number of cookies set on client systemsthat accessed the common resources during the time period to a projectedtotal number of people that accessed the common resources during thetime period.

The one or more adjustment factors may include a person-per-cookieadjustment factor that reflects a number of persons that accessed thecommon resources during the time period per beacon cookies. To determinethe person-per-cookie adjustment factor, the instructions may includeinstructions that cause the one or more processing devices to determinea ratio of a projected total number of people that accessed the commonresources during the time period to a projected total number of cookiesset on client systems that accessed the common resources during the timeperiod.

The one or more adjustment factors may include a machine overlapadjustment factor that reflects a number of client systems that wereused to access the common resources during the time period per personthat accessed the common resources during the time period. To determinethe machine overlap adjustment factor, the instructions may includeinstructions that cause the one or more processing devices to determinethe machine overlap factor based, at least in part, on an incrementalnumber of client systems per person used by people that accessed thecommon resources during the time period, a frequency of accesses perperson that accessed the common resources during the time period, and anaverage number of accesses to the common resources per day during thetime period. The incremental number of client systems per person may bedetermined based on a ratio of a total number of client systems thataccessed the common resources during the time period to a total numberof people that accessed the common resources during the time period.

The one or more adjustment factors may include a non-beaconed adjustmentfactor that reflects a number of unique visitors that accessed one ormore resources in the third set of resources that are included in thesecond set of resources but not included in the first set of resources.To determine the non-beaconed adjustment factor, the instructions mayinclude instructions that cause the one or more processing devices todetermine a projected number of unique visitors that accessed the thirdset of resources, determine a projected number of unique visitors thataccessed the common resources, and subtract the projected number ofunique visitors that accessed the common resources from the projectednumber of unique visitors that accessed the third set of resources.

To determine the initial usage measurement data, the instructions mayinclude instructions that, when executed, cause the one or moreprocessing devices to determine an initial count of page views for thethird set of resources during a time period by determining a total countof the beacon messages that identify the common resources. The one ormore adjustment factors may include a non-beaconed adjustment factorthat reflects a number of page views for one or more resources in thethird set of resources that are included in the second set of resourcesbut not included in the first set of resources.

In another aspect, a method includes accessing a first set of usage datafor a first set of resources on a network. The first set of resourceswere accessed by a first group of client systems and the first set ofusage data is determined based on information received from the firstgroup of client systems sent as a result of beacon instructions includedwith the first set of resources. The method also includes accessing asecond set of usage data for a second set of resources on a network. Thesecond set of usage data is determined based on information receivedfrom monitoring applications installed on a second group of clientsystems that accessed the second set of resources. Users of the secondgroup of client systems are a sample of a larger group of users that useresources on the network. Further, the method includes determininginitial usage measurement data for a third set of resources on thenetwork based on the first set of usage data, wherein the third setincludes one or more common resources that are included in the first setof resources and the second set of resources; determining one or moreadjustment factors based on the second set of usage data; applying theone or more adjustments factors to the initial usage measurement data togenerate adjusted usage measurement data; and generating one or morereports based on the adjusted usage measurement data.

Implementations may include one or more of the following features. Forexample, the information received from the first group of client systemsmay include, for each of the client systems in the first group thataccessed the common resources, one or more beacon messages that identifythe common resources and that include a beacon cookie with a uniqueidentifier for the client system. Determining the initial usagemeasurement data may include determining an initial count of uniquevisitors that accessed the third set of resources during a time periodby determining a count of the received beacon messages that identify thecommon resources and that include beacon cookies with different uniqueidentifiers.

The one or more adjustment factors may include a cookie-per-personadjustment factor that reflects a number of beacon cookies per personthat accessed the common resources during the time period. Determiningthe cookie-per-person adjustment factor may include determining a ratioof a projected total number of cookies set on client systems thataccessed the common resources during the time period to a projectedtotal number of people that accessed the common resources during thetime period.

The one or more adjustment factors may include a person-per-cookieadjustment factor that reflects a number of persons that accessed thecommon resources during the time period per beacon cookies. Determiningthe person-per-cookie adjustment factor may include determining a ratioof a projected total number of people that accessed the common resourcesduring the time period to a projected total number of cookies set onclient systems that accessed the common resources during the timeperiod.

The one or more adjustment factors may include a machine overlapadjustment factor that reflects a number of client systems that wereused to access the common resources during the time period per personthat accessed the common resources during the time period. Determiningthe machine overlap adjustment factor may include determining themachine overlap factor based, at least in part, on an incremental numberof client systems per person used by people that accessed the commonresources during the time period, a frequency of accesses per personthat accessed the common resources during the time period, and anaverage number of accesses to the common resources per day during thetime period. The incremental number of client systems per person may bedetermined based on a ratio of a total number of client systems thataccessed the common resources during the time period to a total numberof people that accessed the common resources during the time period.

The one or more adjustment factors may include a non-beaconed adjustmentfactor that reflects a number of unique visitors that accessed one ormore resources in the third set of resources that are included in thesecond set of resources but not included in the first set of resources.Determining the non-beaconed adjustment factor may include determining aprojected number of unique visitors that accessed the third set ofresources, determining a projected number of unique visitors thataccessed the common resources, and subtracting the projected number ofunique visitors that accessed the common resources from the projectednumber of unique visitors that accessed the third set of resources.

Determining the initial usage measurement data may include determiningan initial count of page views for the third set of resources during atime period by determining a total count of the beacon messages thatidentify the common resources. The one or more adjustment factors mayinclude a non-beaconed adjustment factor that reflects a number of pageviews for one or more resources in the third set of resources that areincluded in the second set of resources but not included in the firstset of resources.

Implementations of any of the described techniques may include a methodor process, an apparatus, a device, a machine, a system, or instructionsstored on a computer-readable storage device. The details of particularimplementations are set forth in the accompanying drawings anddescription below. Other features will be apparent from the followingdescription, including the drawings, and the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a system in which a panel of users maybe used to perform Internet audience measurement.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a system in which site centric data canbe obtained by including beacon code in one or more web pages.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a system in which panel centric dataand site centric data can be used to generate measurement data.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating an example of a process fordetermining audience measurement reports for a given web page orcollection of web pages.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating an example of a process fordetermining a cookie-per-person adjustment factor.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating an example of a process fordetermining a machine overlap adjustment factor.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating an example of a process fordetermining a non-beaconed adjustment factor.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In general, webpage or other resource accesses by client systems may berecorded, and those accesses may be analyzed to develop audiencemeasurement reports. Data about resource accesses can be collected usinga panel-based approach. A panel-based approach generally entailsinstalling a monitoring application on the client systems of a panel ofusers. The monitoring application then collects information about thewebpage or other resource accesses and sends that information to acollection server.

Data about resource accesses can also be collected using a beacon-basedapproach. A beacon-based approach generally involves associating scriptor other code with the resource being accessed such that the code isexecuted when a client system renders or otherwise employs the resource.When executed, the beacon code sends a message to a collection server.The message includes certain information, such as an identifier of theresource accessed.

While panel-based data and beacon-based data can be used separately toproduce audience measurement reports, the panel-based data and thebeacon-based data can additionally, or alternatively, be used togetherto generate audience measurement reports. Using these data sets togethermay increase the accuracy of the reports. The following describesexamples of systems implementing panel-based and beacon-based approachesto collecting data about resource accesses, and then describes examplesof techniques for using the data collected from both approaches togetherto generate audience measurement reports.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a system 100 in which a panel of usersmay be used to collect data for Internet audience measurement. Thesystem 100 includes client systems 112, 114, 116, and 118, one or moreweb servers 110, a collection server 130, and a database 132. Ingeneral, the users in the panel employ client systems 112, 114, 116, and118 to access resources on the Internet, such as webpages located at theweb servers 110. Information about this resource access is sent by eachclient system 112, 114, 116, and 118 to a collection server 130. Thisinformation may be used to understand the usage habits of the users ofthe Internet.

Each of the client systems 112, 114, 116, and 118, the collection server130, and the web servers 110 may be implemented using, for example, ageneral-purpose computer capable of responding to and executinginstructions in a defined manner, a personal computer, a special-purposecomputer, a workstation, a server, or a mobile device. Client systems112, 114, 116, and 118, collection server 130, and web servers 110 mayreceive instructions from, for example, a software application, aprogram, a piece of code, a device, a computer, a computer system, or acombination thereof, which independently or collectively directoperations. The instructions may be embodied permanently or temporarilyin any type of machine, component, equipment, or other physical storagemedium that is capable of being used by a client system 112, 114, 116,and 118, collection server 130, and web servers 110.

In the example shown in FIG. 1, the system 100 includes client systems112, 114, 116, and 118. However, in other implementations, there may bemore or fewer client systems. Similarly, in the example shown in FIG. 1,there is a single collection server 130. However, in otherimplementations there may be more than one collection server 130. Forexample, each of the client systems 112, 114, 116, and 118 may send datato more than one collection server for redundancy. In otherimplementations, the client systems 112, 114, 116, and 118 may send datato different collection servers. In this implementation, the data, whichrepresents data from the entire panel, may be communicated to andaggregated at a central location for later processing. The centrallocation may be one of the collection servers.

The users of the client systems 112, 114, 116, and 118 are a group ofusers that are a representative sample of the larger universe beingmeasured, such as the universe of all Internet users or all Internetusers in a geographic region. To understand the overall behavior of theuniverse being measured, the behavior from this sample is projected tothe universe being measured. The size of the universe being measuredand/or the demographic composition of that universe may be obtained, forexample, using independent measurements or studies. For example,enumeration studies may be conducted monthly (or at other intervals)using random digit dialing.

Similarly, the client systems 112, 114, 116, and 118 are a group ofclient systems that are a representative sample of the larger universeof client systems being used to access resources on the Internet. As aresult, the behavior on a machine basis, rather than person basis, canalso be, additionally or alternatively, projected to the universe of allclient systems accessing resources on the Internet. The total universeof such client systems may also be determined, for example, usingindependent measurements or studies

The users in the panel may be recruited by an entity controlling thecollection server 130, and the entity may collect various demographicinformation regarding the users in the panel, such as age, sex,household size, household composition, geographic region, number ofclient systems, and household income. The techniques used to recruitusers may be chosen or developed to help insure that a good randomsample of the universe being measured is obtained, biases in the sampleare minimized, and the highest manageable cooperation rates areachieved. Once a user is recruited, a monitoring application isinstalled on the user's client system. The monitoring applicationcollects the information about the user's use of the client system toaccess resources on the Internet and sends that information to thecollection server 130.

For example, the monitoring application may have access to the networkstack of the client system on which the monitoring application isinstalled. The monitoring application may monitor network traffic toanalyze and collect information regarding requests for resources sentfrom the client system and subsequent responses. For instance, themonitoring application may analyze and collect information regardingHTTP requests and subsequent HTTP responses.

Thus, in system 100, a monitoring application 112 b, 114 b, 116 b, and118 b, also referred to as a panel application, is installed on each ofthe client systems 112, 114, 116, and 118. Accordingly, when a user ofone of the client systems 112, 114, 116, or 118 employs, for example, abrowser application 112 a, 114 a, 116 a, or 118 a to visit and view webpages, information about these visits may be collected and sent to thecollection server 130 by the monitoring application 112 b, 114 b, 116 b,and 118 b. For instance, the monitoring application may collect and sendto the collection server 130 the URLs of web pages or other resourcesaccessed, the times those pages or resources were accessed, and anidentifier associated with the particular client system on which themonitoring application is installed (which may be associated with thedemographic information collected regarding the user or users of thatclient system). For example, a unique identifier may be generated andassociated with the particular copy of the monitoring applicationinstalled on the client system. The monitoring application also maycollect and send information about the requests for resources andsubsequent responses. For example, the monitoring application maycollect the cookies sent in requests and/or received in the responses.The collection server 130 receives and records this information. Thecollection server 130 aggregates the recorded information from theclient systems and stores this aggregated information in the database132 as panel centric data 132 a.

The panel centric data 132 a may be analyzed to determine the visitationor other habits of users in the panel, which may be extrapolated to thelarger population of all Internet users. The information collectedduring a particular usage period (session) can be associated with aparticular user of the client system (and/or his or her demographics)that is believed or known to be using the client system during that timeperiod. For example, the monitoring application may require the user toidentify his or herself, or techniques such as those described in U.S.Patent Application No. 2004-0019518 or U.S. Pat. No. 7,260,837, bothincorporated herein by reference, may be used. Identifying theindividual using the client system may allow the usage information to bedetermined and extrapolated on a per person basis, rather than a permachine basis. In other words, doing so allows the measurements taken tobe attributable to individuals across machines within households, ratherthan to the machines themselves.

To extrapolate the usage of the panel members to the larger universebeing measured, some or all of the members of the panel are weighted andprojected to the larger universe. In some implementations, a subset ofall of the members of the panel may be weighted and projected. Forinstance, analysis of the received data may indicate that the datacollected from some members of the panel may be unreliable. Thosemembers may be excluded from reporting and, hence, from being weightedand projected.

The reporting sample of users (those included in the weighting andprojection) are weighted to insure that the reporting sample reflectsthe demographic composition of the universe of users to be measured, andthis weighted sample is projected to the universe of all users. This maybe accomplished by determining a projection weight for each member ofthe reporting sample and applying that projection weight to the usage ofthat member. Similarly, a reporting sample of client systems may beprojected to the universe of all client systems by applying clientsystem projection weights to the usage of the client systems. The clientsystem projection weights are generally different from the userprojection weights.

The usage behavior of the weighted and projected sample (either user orclient system) may then be considered a representative portrayal of thebehavior of the defined universe (either user or client system,respectively). Behavioral patterns observed in the weighted, projectedsample may be assumed to reflect behavioral patterns in the universe.

Estimates of visitation or other behavior can be generated from thisinformation. For example, this data may be used to estimate the numberof unique visitors (or client systems) visiting certain web pages orgroups of web pages, or unique visitors within a particular demographicvisiting certain web pages or groups of web pages. This data may also beused to determine other estimates, such as the frequency of usage peruser (or client system), average number of pages viewed per user (orclient system), and average number of minutes spent per user (or clientsystem).

As described further below, such estimates and/or other informationdetermined from the panel centric data may be used with data from abeacon-based approach to generate reports about audience visitation orother activity. Using the panel centric data with data from abeacon-based approach may improve the overall accuracy of such reports.

Referring to FIG. 2, a beacon-based approach may be implemented using asystem 200. In general, a beacon-based approach may entail includingbeacon code in one or more web pages.

System 200 includes one or more client systems 202, the web servers 110,the collection servers 130, and the database 132. The client systems 202can include client systems 112, 114, 116, or 118, which have the panelapplication installed on them, as well as client systems that do nothave the panel application installed.

The client systems include a browser application 204 that retrieves webpages 206 from web servers 110 and renders the retrieved web pages. Someof the web pages 206 include beacon code 208. In general, publishers ofweb pages may agree with the entity operating the collection server 130to include this beacon code in some or all of their web pages. This code208 is rendered with the web page in which the code 208 is included.When rendered, the code 208 causes the browser application 204 to send amessage to the collection server 130. This message includes certaininformation, such as the URL of the web page in which the beacon code208 is included. For example, the beacon code may be JavaScript codethat accesses the URL of the web page on which the code is included, andsends to the collection server 130 an HTTP Post message that includesthe URL in a query string. Similarly, the beacon code may be JavaScriptcode that accesses the URL of the web page on which the code isincluded, and includes that in the URL in the “src” attribute of an<img> tag, which results in a request for the resource located at theURL in the “src” attribute of the <img> tag to the collection server130. Because the URL of the webpage is included in the “src” attribute,the collection server 130 receives the URL of the webpage. Thecollection server 130 can then return a transparent image. The followingis an example of such JavaScript:

  <script type=“text/javascript”>   document.write(“<img id=‘img1’height=‘1’ width=‘1’>”);document.getElementById(“img1”).src=“http://example.com/scripts/report.dll?C7= ” + escape(window.location.href) +“&rn=” + Math.floor(Math.random( )*99999999);   </script>

The collection server 130 records the webpage URL received in themessage with, for instance, a time stamp of when the message wasreceived and the IP address of the client system from which the messagewas received. The collection server 130 aggregates this recordedinformation and stores this aggregated information in the database 132as site centric data 132 b.

The message may also include a unique identifier for the client system.For example, when a client system first sends a beacon message to thecollection server 130, a unique identifier may be generated for theclient system (and associated with the received beacon message). Thatunique identifier may then be included in a cookie that is set on thatclient system 102. As a result, later beacon messages from that clientsystem may have the cookie appended to them such that the messagesinclude the unique identifier for the client system. If a beacon messageis received from the client system without the cookie (e.g., because theuser deleted cookies on the client system), then the collection server130 may again generate a unique identifier and include that identifierin a new cookie set of the client system.

Thus, as users of client systems 102 access webpages (e.g., on theInternet), the client systems 102 access the webpages that include thebeacon code, which results in messages being sent to the collectionserver 130. These messages indicate the webpage that was accessed (e.g.,by including the URL for the webpage) and potentially a uniqueidentifier for the client system that sent the message. When a messageis received at the collection server 130, a record may be generated forthe received message. The record may indicate an identifier (e.g., theURL) of the webpage accessed by the client system, the unique identifierfor the client system, a time at which the client system accessed thewebpage (e.g., by including a time stamp of when the message wasreceived by the collection server 130), and a network address, such asan IP address, of the client system that accessed the webpage. Thecollection server 130 may then aggregate these records and store theaggregated records in the database 132 as site centric data 132 b.

The beacon messages are generally sent regardless of whether or not thegiven client system has the panel application installed. But, for clientsystems in which the panel application is installed, the panelapplication also records and reports the beacon message to thecollection server 130. For example, if the panel application isrecording HTTP traffic, and the beacon message is sent using an HTTPPost message (or as a result of an <img> tag), then the beacon messageis recorded as part of the HTTP traffic recorded by the panelapplication, including, for instance, any cookies that are included aspart of the beacon message. Thus, in this instance, the collectionserver 130 receives the beacon message as a result of the beacon code,and a report of the beacon message as part of the panel applicationrecording and reporting network traffic.

Because the beacon message is sent regardless of whether the panelapplication is installed, the site centric data 132 b directlyrepresents accesses by the members of the larger universe to bemeasured, not just the members of the panel. As a result, for those webpages or groups of web pages that include the beacon code, thesite-centric data 132 b may serve as the baseline for generatingaudience measurement data. However, for various reasons, this initialdata may include some inaccuracies. As described further below, thepanel-centric data 132 a can be used to determine adjustment factorsthat may increase the accuracy of the site-centric data.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a system 300 in which panel centricdata 132 a and site centric data 132 b can be used to generatemeasurement data 306. The system 300 includes a reporting server 302 Thereporting server 302 may be implemented using, for example, ageneral-purpose computer capable of responding to and executinginstructions in a defined manner, a personal computer, a special-purposecomputer, a workstation, a server, or a mobile device. The reportingserver 302 may receive instructions from, for example, a softwareapplication, a program, a piece of code, a device, a computer, acomputer system, or a combination thereof, which independently orcollectively direct operations. The instructions may be embodiedpermanently or temporarily in any type of machine, component, equipment,or other physical storage medium that is capable of being used by thereporting server 302.

The reporting server 302 executes instructions that implement ameasurement data processor 304 and a report generation module 308. Themeasurement data processor 304 includes a pre-processing module 304 a,an initial measurement module 304 b, and a measurement adjustment module304 c. The measurement data processor 304 may implement a process, suchas that shown in FIG. 4, to generate unified or adjusted measurementdata 306 based on the panel centric data 132 a and the site centric data132 b. The report generation module 308 may use the unified or adjustedmeasurement data 306 to generate one or more reports 310 that includeinformation regarding client system accesses of one or more resources.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating an example of a process 400 fordetermining audience measurement reports for a given web page orcollection of web pages. The following describes process 400 as beingperformed by the pre-processing module 304 a, the initial measurementmodule 304 b, the measurement adjustment module 304 c, and the reportgeneration module 308. However, the process 400 may be performed byother systems or system configurations.

The pre-processing module 304 a accesses the panel centric data 132 aand site centric data 132 b (402). As described above, the panel centricdata 132 a indicates a first set of resources accessed by a first set ofclient systems (those in the panel) and the site centric data 132 bindicates a second set of resources accessed by a second set of clientsystems. Some of the second set of client systems are potentially in thepanel and some of the second set of client systems are potentially notin the panel. Further, the second set of resources may include one ormore resources that are also included in the first set of resources.

The panel centric data 132 a may include records that reflect the URLsor other identifiers of web pages or other resources accessed, the timesthose pages or resources were accessed, identifiers of the clientsystems that accessed the resources, and information about the requestsand responses used to access the resources (for example, cookies sent inrequests and/or received in the responses). The site centric data 132 bmay include records that reflect a URL or other identifier of a resourcethat has been accessed by a client system, a network address of theclient system that accessed the resource, a time that the client systemaccessed the resource (for example, as reflected by a time stamp of thetime at which the beacon message was received by the collection server130), and a unique identifier for the client system that accessed theresource (for example, included in a cookie attached to the beaconmessage).

The panel centric data 132 a and the site centric data 132 b that isaccessed by the pre-processing module 304 a may be the data that isaggregated for a certain, previous time period. For example, theaccessed data may be the panel centric data 132 a and the site centricdata 132 b aggregated over the previous 30 days.

The pre-processing module 304 a performs one or more pre-processingfunctions on the accessed panel centric data 132 a and the accessed sitecentric data 132 b (404). For example, the pre-processing module 304 amay process the raw panel centric data 132 a to form state data thatrepresents the complete fact of usage in a single record. For instance,for web page visitation, a record in the state data may indicate that aparticular user, on a particular date, at a particular time, accessedweb page B (as represented by the URL for that web page), using aparticular client system. The pre-processing module 304 a also may matchsome or all of the URLs in the records of the state data to patterns ina dictionary of the Internet, which may organize various different URLsinto digital media properties, reflecting how Internet companies operatetheir businesses. Each pattern may be associated with a web entity,which may be a web page or collection of web pages that are logicallygrouped together in a manner that reflects how Internet companiesoperate their business. For example, the various web pages that areincluded in the finance.yahoo.com domain may be logically groupedtogether into a single web entity (e.g., Yahoo Finance). The dictionarymay include a number of hierarchically web entities to reflect variousInternet media companies and how those companies arrange their webproperties. For example, the Yahoo Finance web entity may be considereda subset of the Yahoo web entity, which may cover all of the various webpages included in the yahoo.com domain. The Yahoo web entity may includeother web entities, such as a Yahoo Health web entity (associated withthe various web pages in the health.yahoo.com domain). Thepre-processing module 304 a may associate a given state record with thelowest-level web entity associated with the pattern matching the URL inthe state record.

The pre-processing module 304 a may also remove from the panel centricdata 132 a records for users that are not to be included in thereporting sample. For example, there may be rules that are evaluated toinsure that a complete record of a user's usage and non-usage during thereporting period is received. If those rules are not met, the user maybe removed from the reporting sample. Also, a user may be removed if heor she does not meet certain criteria, such as being in a particulargeographic area.

In addition, the pre-processing module 304 a may remove certain types ofrecords. For instance, records that reflect redirects or that reflectnon-human initiated request (e.g., requests made as part of rendering aweb page) may be removed.

The pre-processing module 304 a may process the site centric data 132 bto also match some or all of the URLs in the records of the site centricdata 132 b to patterns in the dictionary so as to associate the recordswith a web entity, such as the lowest level web entity in a hierarchy.The actions 406 to 410 may then be performed on a per-web-entity basisto determine the measurement data 306. For example, actions 406 to 410may be performed for each of the lowest-level web entities, or may beperformed for one or more higher level web entities, with the dictionarybeing used to collect the data associated with all of the lowest-levelweb entities included in the higher level web entity.

In addition, the pre-processing module 204 a may remove certain recordsfrom the site centric data 132 b. For example, the pre-processing module304 a may remove records that reflect non-human initiated accesses fromthe site centric data 132 b. For example, a list of known search indexcrawlers or other robots may be used to remove records that reflectaccesses from those bots. Additionally, or alternatively, if the recordsindicate that sequential accesses to the same or different web pages ina web entity by a particular client system occur at a defined frequency(for example, if the accesses are spaced three seconds apart or less),then accesses subsequent to the first one may be removed. This may helpto remove records from non-human initiated accesses, as well as errorsassociated with the beacon code that may result in more than one beaconmessage per access.

In some implementations, records for certain types of client systemdevices may be removed. For instance, records for mobile devices may beremove. In some implementations, such records may be detected based onuser agent data sent with the beacon message and recorded in the record.In addition, records may be removed for client systems not in aparticular geographic area (e.g., if the reports are being generated fora particular geographic area, such as North America). The country andregion of the client system corresponding to the record may bedetermined based on a reverse lookup of the network address (e.g., areverse lookup of the IP address). Similarly, shared use client systems(e.g., client systems available to the public in a library) may bedetected by analyzing the network access provider based on a reverselook-up of the client system's IP address (which may be captured withthe beacon message).

Pre-processing of both the panel centric data 132 a and the site centricdata 132 b may also involve delineating between classes of clientsystems. At times, it may be desirable to segment reports according toclasses of client systems. For example, in one implementation, thereports and underlying data, at least initially, are segmented into workvs. home client systems, with home client systems being those that areused at home while work client systems are those used at work. These twosubpopulations can be identified and separated in the panel centric data132 a because users self-identified the machines as home or work (oranother class) when registering. To identify and separate these twosub-populations in the site-centric 132 b, the beacon messages receivedbetween 8 am and 6 pm local time Monday through Friday may be assumed tobe work generated traffic. All other traffic may be aligned as targetsfor the Home sample.

In another example for identifying and separating these twosubpopulations in the site centric data 132 b, a model may be developedbased on observed work behavior in the panel centric data 132 a. Thismodel may be based on time of day and day of week usage profiles. If anIP address matches the expected profile for a work machine, all trafficfor that IP address may be considered work traffic. For instance, paneldata may indicate that, if the number of accesses during a first timeperiod (a work time) is greater than the number of accesses during asecond time period (a home time period) by a certain amount, then amachine is probably a work machine. This information may be used,together with the site-centric data, to classify network accessproviders into work or home based on the whether or not accesses byusers of those network access providers are greater during the work timethan the home time, on average, by the certain amount. The networkaccess provider of a given machine may then be determined based on thatmachine's IP address, and that machine may be classified as the sameclass as the network access provider. Such techniques are described, forexample, in U.S. Application Ser. No. 61/241,576, filed Sep. 11, 2009,and titled “Determining Client System Attributes.”

Actions 406 to 410 then may be separately performed on the data in eachsubpopulation, thereby generating measurement data for the homepopulation and measurement data for the work population. Reports thenmay be generated for each of these subpopulations separately, or acombined reports may be generated, as further described with respect toaction 412. Other implementations may similarly divide among severalsubpopulations.

The initial measurement module 304 b determines initial usagemeasurement data based on the pre-processed site centric data (406). Forexample, the initial measurement module 304 b may determine an initialmeasurement of unique visitors for a given web entity. Unique visitorsmay represent the number of unique people that requested and/or viewedone of the web pages of the web entity. To determine the initialmeasurement of unique visitors, for instance, the initial measurementmodule 304 b may count the number of unique cookies (that is, number ofcookies with a different unique identifier) received as part of thebeacon messages received for the web entity.

As another example, the initial measurement module 304 b may determinean initial measurement of page views for a given web entity. Page viewsmay represent the number of times the web pages for a web entity wererequested and/or viewed (regardless of whether the web pages wererequested or viewed by a unique person). In this case, the initialmeasurement module 304 b may count the total number of beacon messagesreceived for the web entity.

The measurement adjustment module 304 c determines one or moreadjustment factors based on the pre-processed panel centric data (408).The initial audience measurement data, determined based solely on thepre-processed site centric data, may not be accurate for a number ofreasons. The pre-processed panel centric data may be used to determineadjustment factors to correct the inaccuracies.

For example, if the initial measurement of unique visitors is based oncookies received with the beacon measurements, then there may be over orunder counting of unique visitors because the cookies are set on amachine and browser basis, and not a person basis. In other words, eventhough multiple people may use a particular client system, only a singlecookie may be set and counted for a given machine and browser. This mayresult in the undercounting of unique visitors.

In addition, a previously set cookie on a client system may be deleted,resulting in a new cookie and new identifier being set for furtheraccesses during the reporting time period. As a result, accesses by thesame user may be mistakenly identified as accesses from two differentusers, which may result in the overcounting of unique visitors.Similarly, a user may use multiple browsers, with different cookiesbeing set for each browser. As a result, there may be multiple,different cookies for a single user because that user uses differentbrowsers on the same machine. This may result in overcounting of uniquevisitors.

To account for such inaccuracies in the site centric data 132 b, acookie-per-person adjustment factor may be determined based on thepre-processed panel centric data. This adjustment factor may bedetermined on a web entity basis. This cookie-per-person adjustmentfactor may reflect the number of cookies that are set per personvisiting beaconed web pages (that is, web pages that include the beaconcode) of the web entity. As a result, this adjustment factor may be usedto adjust the total count of unique visitors to compensate for multiplecookies per person or, conversely, multiple persons per cookie. Thisadjustment factor may be determined, for example, by using process 500described with respect to FIG. 5.

Also, a given user may have and use multiple client systems in a givenlocation (for example, at home). As a result, separate cookies may beset on the multiple client systems, and counted, even though only asingle user is visiting the web entity. This may lead to an overcountingof unique visitors. To account for this inaccuracy, a machine overlapadjustment factor may be determined based on the pre-processed panelcentric data. This adjustment factor may be determined on a web entitybasis. This machine overlap adjustment may reflect the number of clientsystems being used per person that visits the web entity and can,therefore, adjust the total count of unique visitors to adjust formultiple cookies per person that result from a person using more thanone client system to visit the web entity. This adjustment factor may bedetermined, for example, by using process 600 described with respect toFIG. 6.

Furthermore, if the initial measurement of unique visitors or page viewsis based on receiving a beacon message from beacon code included in theweb pages for the web entity, there may be undercounting of either ofthese measurements as a result of beacon code not being included on allof the web pages for a given web entity. This may be the result ofincorrect implementation of the beacon code (for example, the beaconcode is not properly placed on all web pages that are part of the webentity), or not possible for certain policy reasons. For example, onelower level web entity may choose to include beacon code on all of theweb pages for that entity, while another lower level web entity maychoose to not include beacon code at all. If those lower level webentities are underneath the same higher level web entity, then thebeacon code can not be implemented on all of the web pages for thehigher level entity since one of the lower level entities has chosen tonot include beacon code. As a particular example, the MSN® website(msn.com) and the Hotmail® website (hotmail.com) may both be separateweb entities under the higher level web entity designated as Microsoft®.However, these two websites may be separately operated and managed and,therefore, MSN®, for instance, may choose to beacon while Hotmail® doesnot. As a result, the initial audience measurement data (either pageviews or unique visitors) for the web entity Microsoft® does not includeany counts for the Hotmail® webpages since Hotmail® does not includebeacon code on the web pages for Hotmail®.

To account for inaccuracies in the page views or unique visitors thatresult from a failure to include beacon code in all of the web pages fora given web entity, a non-beaconed adjustment factor may be determinedbased on the pre-processed panel centric data. This adjustment factormay be determined on a web entity basis. Since, ideally, the panelapplications capture all web traffic, visits to non-beaconed web pagesfor a given entity are also captured and reported by the panelapplications. Thus, the pre-processed panel centric data may be used todetermine a non-beaconed adjustment factor that reflects the number ofpage views or unique visits to web pages for the web entity that are notcounted based on the beacon messages. This adjustment factor may bedetermined, for example, by using process 700 described with respect toFIG. 7.

The measurement adjustor module 304 c applies the adjustment factors tothe initial usage measurement data to generate adjusted usagemeasurement data 306 (410). For instance, in one implementation foraudience measurement data that reflects unique visitors for a given webentity, the measurement adjustor module 304 c may generate adjustedunique visitors data as follows:Adj UVs=((Init UVs/Cookie-Per-Person)*Machine Overlap)+Non-Beaconedwhere Adj UVs is the adjusted unique visitors count, Init UVs is theinitial count of unique visitors based on the pre-processed site centricdata, Cookie-Per-Person is the cookie-per-person adjustment factor,Machine Overlap is the machine overlap adjustment factor, andNon-Beaconed is the non-beaconed adjustment factor. The reciprocal ofthe Cookie-Per-Person adjustment factor (a Person-Per-Cookie adjustmentfactor) may be used by multiplying this factor times the Init UVs,rather than dividing.

As another example, in one implementation for audience measurement datathat reflects the total page views of web pages for a given web entity,the measurement adjustor module 304 c may generate adjusted page viewsdata as follows:Adj PageViews=Init PageViews+Non-Beaconedwhere Adj PageViews is the adjusted page views count, Init PageViews isthe initial page views count based on the pre-processed site centricdata, and Non-Beaconed is the non-beaconed adjustment factor.

The report generation module 308 generates audience measurement reportsbased on the adjusted audience measurement data (412). For example, inan implementation in which the initial data is delineated between homeand work client systems, the report generation module 308 may generatereports on unique visitors or page views for a given web entity for oneor both of the home or work populations. Additionally, or alternatively,in such an implementation, the report generation module 308 may generatereports on unique visitors or page views for a given web entity thatcombine the home and work populations. In other words, the reportgeneration module may combine the page views for the home and workpopulations into a combined count of page views and/or may combine theunique visitors for the home and work populations into a combined countof unique visitors.

In some implementations, when the report generation module 308 producesa combined count of unique visitors, the report generation module takesinto account the number of users that are present in both the home andwork populations. In some cases, a person may visit a web page for theweb entity from both a home client system and a work client system. As aresult, if the count of the user in the home population was simply addedto the count of the user in the work population, then the user would becounted twice. The report generation module 308 may use panel centricdata 132 a to determine the amount of user overlap between the twopopulations, and remove duplicate counts. For instance, a number ofusers may install the monitoring application on both work client systemsand home client systems, and designate each one as such. Therefore, thedata resulting from these users can be used to estimate the number ofpeople that visit the web pages for the web entity using both home andwork client systems, and this information can be used to de-duplicatethose users in the combined count of unique visitors.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating an example of a process 500 fordetermining a cookie-per-person adjustment factor. The followingdescribes process 500 as being performed by the measurement adjustmentmodule 304 c. However, the process 500 may be performed by other systemsor system configurations. As noted above, this adjustment factor may beused to adjust the initial audience measurement data for a given webentity. Thus, the following describes an implementation of process 500in which the actions 502 to 506 are performed on a web entity basis.

The measurement adjustment module 304 c determines, based on thepre-processed panel-centric data, a count of the total number of uniquevisitors that visited one of the beaconed web page of a given web entity(502). For instance, the total number of unique visitors may bedetermined by determining which members in the pre-processed panel havean associated beacon message as a result of visiting a web page of theweb entity, and adding up the projection weights for each of thesemembers. The projection weight for a given member may be the number ofindividuals that member represents in the total universe and, therefore,adding the projection weights for each of the determined members mayprovide the total number of individuals in the total universe thatvisited one of the beaconed web page of the web entity.

The measurement adjustment module 304 c determines, based on thepre-processed panel-centric data, a count of the total number of beaconcookies for a given web entity (504). For example, the measurementadjustment module 304 c may determine the client systems in thepre-processed panel centric data that accessed a beaconed web page ofthe web entity. For each of those client systems, the measurementadjustment module 304 c may then determine the number of differentcookies sent with the beacon messages (also referred to as “beaconcookies”) from the client system during the reporting period. Asdescribed above, for client systems in which the panel application isinstalled, the panel applications can also record and report the beaconmessage and any associated cookie (beacon cookie). For each of thoseclient systems, the measurement adjustment module 304 c then maygenerate a projected cookie count for the client system by applying theprojection weight for the user of the client system to the number ofdifferent beacon cookies sent by the client system during the reportingperiod. The measurement adjustment module 304 c then adds the projectedcookie counts together to determine a count of the total number ofbeacon cookies for the web entity. If there is more than one user of agiven client system, the projection weights for those users may beaveraged and the averaged weight may be applied to the count ofdifferent beacon cookies for that client system to determine theprojected cookie count.

Once the total unique visitors and total cookies for a given web entityare determined, the measurement adjustment module 304 c determines thecookie-per-person adjustment factor by taking the ratio of total cookiesto total unique visitors. In other words, the measurement adjustmentmodule 304 c determines Cookie-Per-Person as:Cookie-Per-Person=Total Cookies/Total Unique Visitorswhere Total Cookies is a count of the total number of beacon cookies forthe web entity and Total Unique Visitors is a count of the total numberof unique visitors for the web entity. As noted above, the reciprocal ofthe Cookie-Per-Person adjustment factor (Person-Per-Cookie) may be used.The Person-Per-Cookie factor may be determined by determining TotalUnique Visitors/Total Cookies.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating an example of a process 600 fordetermining a machine overlap adjustment factor. The following describesprocess 600 as being performed by the measurement adjustment module 304c. However, the process 600 may be performed by other systems or systemconfigurations. As noted above, this adjustment factor may be used toadjust the initial audience measurement data for a given web entity.Thus, the following describes an implementation of process 600 in whichthe actions 602 to 606 are performed on a web entity basis.

The measurement adjustment module 304 c determines, based on thepre-processed panel-centric data, a client system to person ratio for agiven web entity (602). As described above, a given user may have anduse multiple client systems in a given location (for example, at home).As a result, separate cookies may be set on the multiple client systems,and counted, even though only a single user is visiting the web entity.Based on the pre-processed panel centric data, a client system to personratio for a given web entity can be determined for the entire universeof users and client systems being measured (e.g., the universe of allInternet users and client systems, or those in a particular geographicregion). To determine the client system to person ratio for a given webentity, the measurement adjustment module 304 c may determine the totalnumber of client systems in the defined universe that accessed the webpages of the web entity and the total number of users in the defineduniverse that accessed the web pages of the web entity, and thendetermine the ratio of these two numbers.

As described above, there may be projection weights for projecting usersto the total number of Internet users (or Internet users in a particulargeographic region), or other defined user universe, as well asprojection weights for projecting client systems to the total universeof client systems accessing the Internet (or, at least, the total in aparticular geographic region), or other defined client system universe.Thus, to determine the total number of client systems in the defineduniverse that accessed the web pages of the web entity, the measurementadjustment module 304 c may determine the client systems in thepre-processed panel centric data that accessed web pages of the webentity during the reporting period, and add up the projection weightsfor those client systems to determine the total number of client systemsin the defined universe that accessed the web pages of the web entity.Similarly, to determine the total users, the measurement adjustmentmodule 304 c may determine the users in the pre-processed panel centricdata that accessed web pages of the web entity during the reportingperiod, and add up the projection weights for those users to determinethe total number of users in the defined universe that accessed the webpages of the web entity.

Based on the client system to person ratio, the measurement adjustmentmodule 304 c determines the expected reach based on all of the panelistsin the pre-processed panel centric data across all of the client systemson which those panelists are active (604). In general, reach is thepercentage of users, out of the total universe of users, that visited aweb page of a given web entity during a certain period, such as thereporting period. In other words, reach is the percentage of the totalpossible visitors that visited a web page of the web entity.

The expected reach based on all panelists across all client systems onwhich they are active may be calculated using:

$\frac{p\;{RE}}{1 + {\left( {E - 1} \right)p^{\frac{\ln{(\frac{E - 1}{S - 1})}}{\ln{(T)}}}}}$Or$\frac{\left( {1 + q} \right){RE}}{1 + {\left( {E - 1} \right)\left( {1 + q} \right)^{\frac{\ln{(\frac{E - 1}{S - 1})}}{\ln{(T)}}}}}$where:

p=the client system to person ratio, or

$\quad{\begin{matrix}M_{p} \\P_{q}\end{matrix};}$

q=the incremental number of client systems used by people=(p−1),assuming no shared use machines such that people use at least onemachine;

T=the reporting period measured in days (e.g., 30 days);

R=the projected reach over the reporting period T;

E=the frequency of visitations per visitor to a web page of the webentity during period T;

S=the average visits to a web page of the web entity per day duringperiod T.

The projected reach, R, over the reporting period T may be determined byusing the pre-processed panel centric data to determine the projectednumber of users that visited a web page of the web entity during thereporting period and dividing that value by the total estimated universeof users. The frequency of visitations per visitor to a web page of theweb entity, E, may be determined by using the pre-processed panelcentric data to determine the total visits to a web page of the webentity during the reporting period and the total visitors to a web pageof the entity during the reporting period, and then dividing those twonumbers. The average page visits to a web page of the web entity perday, S, may be determined by using the pre-processed panel centric datato determine the total number of unique visits in each day of thereporting period, add these values together, and then divide by thetotal number of days in the reporting period.

Based on the client system to person ratio, the measurement adjustmentmodule 304 c determines the incremental reach not measured due to theclient systems used by members of the panel, but not included in thepanel plus the reach, R, measured by the panel (506). This expectedreach gain from the incremental machine activity not measured by thepanel can be determined using:

q RE$1 + {\left( {E - 1} \right)q^{\frac{\ln{(\frac{E - 1}{S - 1})}}{\ln{(T)}}}}$

This incremental reach can then be added to the measured reach, R.

The measurement adjustment module 304 c determines the machine overlapadjustment factor by determining the ratio of the expected reach acrossall client systems to the incremental reach plus measured reach (508).In other words, the measurement adjustment module 304 c may determinethe machine overlap adjustment factor based on the following:

$\frac{\left( {1 + q} \right){RE}}{\frac{1 + {\left( {E - 1} \right)\left( {1 + q} \right)^{\frac{\ln{(\frac{E - 1}{S - 1})}}{\ln{(T)}}}}}{R + \frac{q\;{RE}}{1 + {\left( {E - 1} \right)q^{{\ln{(\frac{E - 1}{S - 1})}}/{\ln{(T)}}}}}}}$

Which simplifies to:

$\frac{\left( {1 + q} \right)E}{\frac{1 + {\left( {E - 1} \right)\left( {1 + q} \right)^{\frac{\ln{(\frac{E - 1}{S - 1})}}{\ln{(T)}}}}}{1 + \frac{q\; E}{1 + {\left( {E - 1} \right)q^{{\ln{(\frac{E - 1}{S - 1})}}/{\ln{(T)}}}}}}}$

As an alternative to first calculating the expected reach, calculatingthe incremental reach plus measured reach, and then dividing the two,the measurement adjustment module 304 c may determine the machineoverlap adjustment factor based directly on the simplified equationabove. For instance, the measurement adjustment module 304 c maydetermine the client system to person ratio as described above,determine the incremental number of client systems used by people basedon the machine to person ratio (e.g., by determining p−1), determine thefrequency of visitations per visitor to a web page of the web entity asdescribed above, determine the average visits to a web page of the webentity per day as described above, and then determine the machineoverlap adjustment factor based on q, E, S, and T using the simplifiedequation above.

Moreover, if the composition of users and client systems in the defineduniverse is estimated accurately and taken into account correctly whendetermining projection weights for the users and client systems in thepanel, then the client system to person ratio may be used directly asthe machine overlap adjustment factor. However, such perfect estimatingand weighting may be very difficult to accomplish. For instance, theremay be a mix of primary (those used by a user most often to access theInternet) and secondary (those use less often) machines in the panel,but the exact mix may not be known. So, depending on the samplecomposition and the site, the client system to person ratio may beskewed more towards secondary usage or primary usage. To compensate forsuch errors, the client system to person ratio may be used as describedabove with the expected and incremental reaches to determine a machineoverlap adjustment factor that compensates for the possible errors inestimating the universe and weighting. If the simplified equation aboveis used and the expected combined reach is greater than the addition ofincremental reach to measured reach, the sample is skewed more towardssecondary usage for the web entity and the machine overlap factor willscale up unique visitors. On the other hand, if the expected combinedreach is less than the addition of incremental reach to measured reach,then the sample is skewed more towards primary usage and the machineoverlap adjustment factor will scale down unique visitors to account forincremental secondary usage.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating an example of a process 700 fordetermining a non-beaconed adjustment factor. The following describesprocess 700 as being performed by the measurement adjustment module 304c. However, the process 700 may be performed by other systems or systemconfigurations. As noted above, this adjustment factor may be used toadjust the initial audience measurement data for a given web entity.Thus, the following describes an implementation of process 700 in whichthe actions 702 to 706 are performed on a web entity basis.

The measurement adjustment module 304 c, depending on the particularaudience measurement, determines a total count of the unique visitors orpage views for a given web entity based on the pre-processedpanel-centric data (702). As described above, since, ideally, the panelapplications capture all web traffic, visits to non-beaconed web pagesfor a given web entity are also captured and reported by the panelapplications. As a result, the measurement adjustment module 304 c mayuse the pre-processed panel data to determine a total count of theunique visitors or page views for a given web entity, even if all of theweb pages for a web entity do not include beacon code.

For instance, the total number of unique visitors may be determined byadding up the projection weights for each of the members of the panel inthe pre-processed panel centric data that visited a web page of the webentity. The total number of page views may be determined, for instance,by applying each member's projection weight to the count of page viewsfor the member to generate a projected page views for the member, andthen adding together all of the projected page views.

The measurement adjustment module 304 c, depending on the particularaudience measurement, determines an overlap count of the unique visitorsor page views for a given web entity, based on the pre-processedpanel-centric data (704). An overlap count of the unique visitors orpage views are the number of unique visitors or page views attributableto visits to web pages that included the beacon code. To determine theoverlap count of unique visitors, the measurement adjustment module 304c, for example, may add together the projection weights for members inthe pre-processed panel centric data that visited a web page of the webentity and that sent a beacon message with a beacon cookie. To determinethe overlap count of page views, the measurement adjustment module 304c, for example, may determine the members in the pre-processed panelcentric data that visited a web page of the web entity and that sent abeacon message with a beacon cookie, determine the number of page viewsfor each of those members, apply the projections weights for each memberto the respective number of page views for the member to generateprojected page views, and then add together the projected page views toobtain a total overlap count of page views.

The measurement adjustment module 304 c, depending on the particularaudience measurement, determines a non-beaconed adjustment factor bysubtracting the total count of the unique visitors or page views for agiven web entity from the overlap count of unique visitors or page viewsfor the web entity (706). As noted above, the non-beaconed adjustmentfactor is used to adjust for the non-beaconed web pages. Thus, theoverlap count is removed from the total count of unique visitors or pageviews (which includes unique visitors or page views for both web pageswith beacon code and web pages without beacon code) to arrive at anadjustment factor that reflects unique visitors or page viewsattributable only to those web pages of the web entity that do notcontain beacon code. In other words, Non-Beaconed is determined basedon:Non-Beaconed=Total Count−Overlap Countwhere Total Count is the projected total count of unique visitors orpage views for the web entity (for both beaconed and non-beaconed pages)based on the pre-processed panel centric data and Overlap Count is theprojected count of unique visitors or page views attributable to webpages of the web entity that include beacon code.

The techniques described herein can be implemented in digital electroniccircuitry, or in computer hardware, firmware, software, or incombinations of them. The techniques can be implemented as a computerprogram product, i.e., a computer program tangibly embodied in aninformation carrier, e.g., in a machine-readable storage device, inmachine-readable storage medium, in a computer-readable storage deviceor, in computer-readable storage medium for execution by, or to controlthe operation of, data processing apparatus, e.g., a programmableprocessor, a computer, or multiple computers. A computer program can bewritten in any form of programming language, including compiled orinterpreted languages, and it can be deployed in any form, including asa stand-alone program or as a module, component, subroutine, or otherunit suitable for use in a computing environment. A computer program canbe deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computers atone site or distributed across multiple sites and interconnected by acommunication network.

Method steps of the techniques can be performed by one or moreprogrammable processors executing a computer program to performfunctions of the techniques by operating on input data and generatingoutput. Method steps can also be performed by, and apparatus of thetechniques can be implemented as, special purpose logic circuitry, e.g.,an FPGA (field programmable gate array) or an ASIC (application-specificintegrated circuit).

Processors suitable for the execution of a computer program include, byway of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors, andany one or more processors of any kind of digital computer. Generally, aprocessor will receive instructions and data from a read-only memory ora random access memory or both. The essential elements of a computer area processor for executing instructions and one or more memory devicesfor storing instructions and data. Generally, a computer will alsoinclude, or be operatively coupled to receive data from or transfer datato, or both, one or more mass storage devices for storing data, such as,magnetic, magneto-optical disks, or optical disks. Information carrierssuitable for embodying computer program instructions and data includeall forms of non-volatile memory, including by way of examplesemiconductor memory devices, such as, EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memorydevices; magnetic disks, such as, internal hard disks or removabledisks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. Theprocessor and the memory can be supplemented by, or incorporated inspecial purpose logic circuitry.

A number of implementations of the techniques have been described.Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may bemade. For example, useful results still could be achieved if steps ofthe disclosed techniques were performed in a different order and/or ifcomponents in the disclosed systems were combined in a different mannerand/or replaced or supplemented by other components.

Accordingly, other implementations are within the scope of the followingclaims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: one or more processingdevices; one or more storage devices storing instructions that, whenexecuted by the one or more processing devices, cause the one or moreprocessing devices to perform the following operations: access usagemeasurement data determined based on a first set of usage data for afirst set of resources on a network, the first set of resources havingbeen accessed by a first group of client systems and the first set ofusage data being determined based on information received from the firstgroup of client systems sent as a result of beacon instructions includedwith the first set of resources; access a second set of usage data for asecond set of resources on a network, the second set of usage data beingdetermined based on information received from monitoring applicationsinstalled on a second group of client systems that accessed the secondset of resources, wherein users of the second group of client systemsare a sample of a larger group of users that use resources on thenetwork, and wherein the second set of resources includes one or morecommon resources that are included in the first set of resources;determine, based on the second set of usage data and not based on thefirst set of usage data, one or more adjustment factors associated witha characteristic present in the second set of usage data and not presentin the first set of usage data; apply the one or more adjustmentsfactors to the usage measurement data to generate adjusted usagemeasurement data; generate one or more reports based on the adjustedusage measurement data.
 2. The system of claim 1 wherein the informationreceived from the first group of client systems includes, for each ofthe client systems in the first group that accessed the commonresources, one or more beacon messages that identify the commonresources and that include a beacon cookie with a unique identifier forthe client system.
 3. The system of claim 2 wherein the accessed usagemeasurement data is determined by determining an initial count of uniquevisitors that accessed the common resources during a time period bydetermining a count of the received beacon messages that identify thecommon resources and that include beacon cookies with different uniqueidentifiers.
 4. The system of claim 3 wherein the one or more adjustmentfactors include a cookie-per-person adjustment factor that reflects anumber of beacon cookies per person that accessed the common resourcesduring the time period.
 5. The system of claim 4 wherein, to determinethe cookie-per-person adjustment factor, the instructions includeinstructions that cause the one or more processing devices to determinea ratio of a projected total number of cookies set on client systemsthat accessed the common resources during the time period to a projectedtotal number of people that accessed the common resources during thetime period.
 6. The system of claim 3 wherein the one or more adjustmentfactors include a person-per-cookie adjustment factor that reflects anumber of persons that accessed the common resources during the timeperiod per beacon cookies.
 7. The system of claim 6 wherein, todetermine the person-per-cookie adjustment factor, the instructionsinclude instructions that cause the one or more processing devices todetermine a ratio of a projected total number of people that accessedthe common resources during the time period to a projected total numberof cookies set on client systems that accessed the common resourcesduring the time period.
 8. The system of claim 3 wherein the one or moreadjustment factors include a machine overlap adjustment factor thatreflects a number of client systems that were used to access the commonresources during the time period per person that accessed the commonresources during the time period.
 9. The system of claim 8 wherein, todetermine the machine overlap adjustment factor, the instructionsinclude instructions that cause the one or more processing devices todetermine the machine overlap factor based, at least in part, on anincremental number of client systems per person used by people thataccessed the common resources during the time period, a frequency ofaccesses per person that accessed the common resources during the timeperiod, and an average number of accesses to the common resources perday during the time period.
 10. The system of claim 9 wherein theincremental number of client systems per person is determined based on aratio of a total number of client systems that accessed the commonresources during the time period to a total number of people thataccessed the common resources during the time period.
 11. The system ofclaim 3 wherein the one or more adjustment factors include anon-beaconed adjustment factor that reflects a number of unique visitorsthat accessed one or more resources that are included in the second setof resources but not included in the first set of resources.
 12. Thesystem of claim 11 wherein, to determine the non-beaconed adjustmentfactor, the instructions include instructions that cause the one or moreprocessing devices to determine a projected number of unique visitorsthat accessed the second resources, determine a projected number ofunique visitors that accessed the common resources, and subtract theprojected number of unique visitors that accessed the common resourcesfrom the projected number of unique visitors that accessed the secondset of resources.
 13. The system of claim 2 wherein, to determine theunadjusted usage measurement data, the instructions include instructionsthat, when executed, cause the one or more processing devices todetermine an initial count of page views for the common resources duringa time period by determining a total count of the beacon messages thatidentify the common resources.
 14. The system of claim 13 wherein theone or more adjustment factors include a non-beaconed adjustment factorthat reflects a number of page views for one or more resources includedin the second set of resources but not included in the first set ofresources.
 15. A system comprising: one or more processing devices; oneor more storage devices storing instructions that, when executed by theone or more processing devices, cause the one or more processing devicesto perform the following operations: access usage measurement datadetermined based on a first set of usage data for a first set ofresources on a network, the first set of resources having been accessedby a first group of client systems and the first set of usage data beingdetermined based on information received from the first group of clientsystems sent as a result of instructions, included with the first set ofresources, that cause a client system executing the instructions toautomatically send a message that includes the information from whichthe first set of usage data is determined; access a second set of usagedata for a second set of resources on a network, the second set of usagedata being determined based on information received from monitoringapplications installed on a second group of client systems that accessedthe second set of resources, wherein users of the second group of clientsystems are a sample of a larger group of users that use resources onthe network, wherein the second set of usage data includes informationabout cookies stored by the second group of client systems, and whereinthe second set of resources includes one or more common resources thatare included in the first set of resources; determine, based on theinformation about cookies stored by the second group of client systemsincluded in the second set of usage data, one or more adjustment factorsassociated with a characteristic present in the second set of usage dataand not present in the first set of usage data; apply the one or moreadjustments factors to the usage measurement data to generate adjustedusage measurement data; generate one or more reports based on theadjusted usage measurement data.
 16. The system of claim 15 wherein theinformation received from the first group of client systems includes,for each of the client systems in the first group that accessed thecommon resources, one or more messages that identify the commonresources and that include a cookie with a unique identifier for theclient system.
 17. The system of claim 16 wherein the accessed usagemeasurement data is determined by determining an initial count of uniquevisitors that accessed the common resources during a time period bydetermining a count of the received messages that identify the commonresources and that include cookies with different unique identifiers.18. The system of claim 17 wherein the one or more adjustment factorsinclude a cookie-per-person adjustment factor that reflects a number ofcookies per person that accessed the common resources during the timeperiod.
 19. The system of claim 18 wherein, to determine thecookie-per-person adjustment factor, the instructions includeinstructions that cause the one or more processing devices to determinea ratio of a projected total number of cookies set on client systemsthat accessed the common resources during the time period to a projectedtotal number of people that accessed the common resources during thetime period.
 20. The system of claim 17 wherein the one or moreadjustment factors include a person-per-cookie adjustment factor thatreflects a number of persons that accessed the common resources duringthe time period per cookie.
 21. The system of claim 20 wherein, todetermine the person-per-cookie adjustment factor, the instructionsinclude instructions that cause the one or more processing devices todetermine a ratio of a projected total number of people that accessedthe common resources during the time period to a projected total numberof cookies set on client systems that accessed the common resourcesduring the time period.
 22. The system of claim 17 wherein the one ormore adjustment factors include a machine overlap adjustment factor thatreflects a number of client systems that were used to access the commonresources during the time period per person that accessed the commonresources during the time period.
 23. The system of claim 22 wherein, todetermine the machine overlap adjustment factor, the instructionsinclude instructions that cause the one or more processing devices todetermine the machine overlap factor based, at least in part, on anincremental number of client systems per person used by people thataccessed the common resources during the time period, a frequency ofaccesses per person that accessed the common resources during the timeperiod, and an average number of accesses to the common resources perday during the time period.
 24. The system of claim 23 wherein theincremental number of client systems per person is determined based on aratio of a total number of client systems that accessed the commonresources during the time period to a total number of people thataccessed the common resources during the time period.
 25. The system ofclaim 17 wherein the one or more adjustment factors include anon-beaconed adjustment factor that reflects a number of unique visitorsthat accessed one or more resources included in the second set ofresources but not included in the first set of resources.
 26. The systemof claim 25 wherein, to determine the non-beaconed adjustment factor,the instructions include instructions that cause the one or moreprocessing devices to determine a projected number of unique visitorsthat accessed the second set of resources, determine a projected numberof unique visitors that accessed the common resources, and subtract theprojected number of unique visitors that accessed the common resourcesfrom the projected number of unique visitors that accessed the secondset of resources.
 27. The system of claim 16 wherein, to determine theunadjusted usage measurement data, the instructions include instructionsthat, when executed, cause the one or more processing devices todetermine an initial count of page views for the common resources duringa time period by determining a total count of the beacon messages thatidentify the common resources.
 28. The system of claim 27 wherein theone or more adjustment factors include a non-beaconed adjustment factorthat reflects a number of page views for one or more resources includedin the second set of resources but not included in the first set ofresources.